The Tirabin () were the most important Arab tribe in the Sinai Peninsula during the 19th century, and the largest inside Negev. Today this tribe resides in the Sinai Peninsula but also in Cairo, Ismailia, Giza, Al Sharqia and Suez, Israel (Negev), Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gaza Strip.Tamim Elyan, Metropolitan Bedouins: Tarabin tribe living in Cairo between urbanization and Bedouin traditions, Daily News Egypt A township named Tirabin al-Sana was built in Israel in 2004 especially for the members of al-Sana clan of Al-Tirabin tribe.
Al-Tirabin are considered the largest Bedouin tribe in the Negev and Sinai Peninsula and all of Egypt, with over 500,000 people.
During the Mamluk administration, clans such as the Aydi tribe were integrated into the Tarabin in an effort to reduce the power of the clans in Palestine. The Ottoman dynasty, the British Mandate and their followers continued this policy.(ar) Al-Sufi Hamid Muhammad Hussein, History of the Tarabin Tribe in Southern Palestine and Sinai, Dar Al-Quds, 2010, 99 p. An Ottoman law of 1875 integrated other tribes living in the Negev into the Tarabin tribe: these are the Azazme, Tiyaha, Jubarat, Hanajre and Huweitat.الصوفي ، حميد محمد حسين ، تاريخ قبيلة الترابين في جنوب فلسطين وسيناء ، دار القدس ، 2010 ، 99 ص
Origin Tarabin traced their ancestry to one 'Atiya who belonged to the Quraysh tribe, to which Mohammed the prophet of Islam belonged, and lived at Turba east of Mecca. It is believed that 'Atiya migrated to Sinai in the 14th Century. He was buried at “wadi-wattir” near Nuweibaa in the south of Sinai. A village named after him was created near his burial place “Al Sheikh Atiya“. 'Atiya had five sons to which various clans of the Tarabin trace their descent. Musa'id was remembered as ancestor of the Qusar; Hasbal of the Hasabila; Nab'a of the Naba'at; Sari of the Sarayi'a. These four sections lived in Sinai.Palestine Exploration Quarterly. (October 1937) Notes on the Bedouin Tribes of Beersheba District I. by S. Hillelson. Pages 243- 246.
Sinai Tarabin The Sinai Tarabin Bedouin are currently located just north of Nuweiba and arrived to the peninsula around 300 years ago. In 1874 they are recorded in a list of Bedouin, produced by the Palestine Exploration Fund, as "in the Desert of the Tih".Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statement for 1875. Page 28.
Due to the changing surroundings and erection of new resort towns such as Sharm el-Sheikh Bedouin lifestyle has undergone changes that have led to the erosion of traditional values, unemployment and land disputes. With urbanization and better educational opportunities, Bedouins have begun to marry outside their tribe, a practice that was once frowned upon.
Bedouins living in the Sinai Peninsula turned down jobs in the construction boom due to the low wages and Sudanese and Egyptians workers were brought in as construction laborers instead. When the tourist industry started to bloom, local Bedouins moved into new service positions such as cab drivers, tour guides, campgrounds or cafe managers. In some families, the women are not allowed to work outside the home.
Tarabin Bedouin living along the border between Egypt and Israel have been involved in inter-border smuggling of weapons and aid to tribe members in Gaza.
In the summer of 1999, the army bulldozed Bedouin-run tourist campgrounds north of Nuweiba as part of the final phase of hotel development overseen by the Tourist Development Agency (TDA). The director of the Tourist Development Agency said that they had not lived on the coast prior to 1982. A traditional semi-nomadic culture has left Bedouins vulnerable to such claims.
The relation between the tarabin tribe and the Egyptian government has flourished in recent years mainly because the tribe under the leadership of Ibrahim al-Arjani the head of the tribe in Egypt fought alongside the Egyptian army against ISIS during the Sinai insurgency.
Gaza Tarabin Tarabin presence in the Gaza Strip is mainly in the southern part of the strip.
During the Gaza war in 2024, Yasser Abu Shabab, a member of the Tarabin tribe, led his gang to steal aid convoys. Gangs have been alleged to have stolen 98 of 109 aid trucks in a single day in one instant.
In November 2024 a battle between Hamas-led police forces and the Abu Shabab gang resulted in the death of 20 members of the gang.
On 30 May 2025, Hamas published a video of their members detonating an IED targeting an armed group of men they called Israeli operatives, with reports from Gaza indicating that the armed group was affiliated with Yasser Abu Shabab, who Hamas accuses of working with Israel. According to The Times of Israel, Israel reportedly provided members of the Abu Shabab clan armed group in Gaza with Kalashnikov rifles without approval from the Israel's security cabinet but by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Abu Suneima family members who are a different branch of the Tarabin tribe in Gaza killed Yasser Abu Shabab in an ambush in Rafah after clashes caused by the detaining of Jumʿaa Abu Suneima on suspicion of diverting food supplies to Hamas .
Attitude of Egyptian authorities After the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Sinai Bedouin were given an unofficial autonomy due to political instability inside the country. But Egyptian authorities traditionally view the Bedouin cross-border ties with Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with suspicion.Ed Douglas, Inside the Bedouin's secret garden, The Observer, The Guardian, September 23, 2007 The Ouda Tarabin case is a good example of it.
Negev Tarabin
The descendants of 'Atiya's son Nijm lived around Beersheba, in what is now called the Negev. Nijm had two sons from which the two branches of the Negev Tarabin trace their line: the Nijmat and the Ghawali. The Nijmat were regarded as the paramount clan. Tradition has it that in time of war they would lead the whole tribe into battle. One of Nijm's grandsons is said to have journeyed to the Indian Subcontinent due to blood feuds with other tribes. His family is believed to have finally settled in the Punjab region while travelling with trade caravans and armies.
Tarabin Khokhar are a subsection of the Khokhar tribe who have been proven to have originated from a Quraysh Bedouin named Atiya. Atiya lived in Turba east of Mecca. He migrated to the Sinai peninsula in the 14th Century. He had five sons who together form the Arab et Tarabin tribe, whose inhabitants still reside in the Sinai and the Negev desert. Some migrated or settled down in Palestine, Egypt and Syria during Ottomon rule. One of his sons, Nijm and his two sons formed the most powerful clan of the Tarabin known as the Nijma't. The Tarabin Khokhar trace their ancestry from Suleman, the grandson of Nijm ibn Atiya. Suleman migrated from the Sinai to Syria as a result of a blood feud with a rival bedouin tribe. Name of the rival tribe is not known, but the Tiyaha are suspected to be the rivals. The descendants of Suleman continued their migration eastward and finally settled in riverlands of the Punjab. The brawn of the Tarabin Bedouin made them great recruits in the army of various Sultans of Iran and the Indian subcontinent. Successive generations changed from Tarabin to Tarabin Khokhar as a result of honors awarded to them. Intact family trees of Tarabin Khokhars tracing there ancestry back to Atiya from Nijm survive to this day. Latest genealogical evidence has corroborated this claim of descent.
In modern times, in 1915, the Nijmat leader Hammad Pasha al-Sufi led a force of 1,500 bedouin under Turkish command in their attack on the Suez Canal. He was head of the Turkish administration in Beersheba and died in 1924. The Ghawali had nine sub-sections. The most prominent was the Satut, who in 1873, under Sheikh Saqr ibn Dahshan Abu Sitta, had to leave their traditional land following a blood feud and sided with the Tiyaha in the war between them and the Tarabin. One of the Satut leaders, 'Aqib Saqr, was well known as a military leader. Khedive Isma'ail gave him land in Faqus district. The Turks exiled him to Jerusalem, where he died. His son Dahshan distinguished himself in the war with the 'Azazma, particularly at the Fight of Ramadan. He and some of his fighters migrated to Transjordania where they attached themselves to the Bani Saqr. During this time the leadership of the Ghawali was taken by the Zari'iyin clan. Their leader in 1915 was Salim who had to flee the Turkish authorities and was succeeded by 'Abd al Karim who died in 1931. He was succeeded by Muhammad Abu Zari.Palestine Exploration Quarterly. (October 1937) Notes on the Bedouin Tribes of Beersheba District I. by S. Hillelson. Pages 243- 246.
The Aydi Tarabin tribe Under the Mamluk administration, the Aydi of the Negev were connected to the الترابين Tarabin tribe despite having no blood ties to them. This was part of an effort to reduce Bedouin influence in Palestine by consolidating smaller clans into larger, fewer tribes, easier to control. The Ottoman dynasty, the British Mandate and their followers continued this policy. An Ottoman law of 1875 reduced the number to six tribes: the Tarabin, Azazmé, Tiyaha, Jubarat, Hanajré. and Huweitat. Its aim was also to try to forbid Bedouins from traveling outside of Palestine and prevent the ones from the outside to come into Palestine. In other occasions, the Aydi family is associated with the التياها Tiyaha or الجبارات Jubarat tribes due to their involvement in trade, military, or land alliances.(en) George William Murray, Sons of Ishmael : A Study of the Egyptian Bedouin, London, George Routledge and Sons LTD, 1935, p. 35-44
The العايد al-Aydi family traces its roots to an ancient Bedouin lineage that extends back to the بنو عايد Banu Ayed or بنو عائد Banu Aed. Its spelling differs on the territory’s dialect. They are part of the جذام Jidam and قحطان Qahtan(ar) علي جواد, المفصل في تاريخ العرب قبل الإسلام, vol. 4, بغداد, جامعة بغداد, 1993, p. 168 tribes, whose origins lie in southern Arabia in today’s Yemen, and who belonged to the عرب العاربة Arab al Aribah.(ar) العايد ، مجدي, قبيلة العايد الانساب وسير والاجداد, غزة, وزارة الثقافة الفلسطينية, 2014 They have adopted monotheism more than two thousand years ago .
A branch from the tribe left Yemen in 542 C.E and established themselves in Iraq, Levant, Egypt, Sudan, Maghreb and the South of Spain.(ar) العايد ، مجدي, قبلية العايد الانساب وسير والاجداد ., غزة, وزارة الثقافة الفلسطينية, 2014, p. 132, p. 147 Nineteen families settled in the Negev,(en) Al-Ayed, Majdi, Al-Ayed Tribe: Genealogies, Biographies and Ancestors, Al-Manar, Palestinian Ministry of Culture, 2014, p. 214 in today’s historical Palestine. The Egyptian branch of the family commonly goes by the name Abaza.(en) Sayyid-Marsot, Afaf Lutfi, Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad Ali, Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. 123
The name commonly used today is Aydi. It is sometimes associated with their reference tribe Tarabin.
Origins of the name Al-Ayd The Aydi name is sometimes found as العيايدة Al Ayayda, العائدية العائدي Al Aiidi, العايذ Al Ayeth, العوايدة Al Awaydé or الاباظية Al Abathia. Bedouin clan and tribe names evolve through time and space, which explains the slight difference in spelling.
The name Al Ayeth or Ayed العائذ او العائد has three different meanings, stemming from ancient Bedouin Arabic:(ar) Al-Ayed, Majdi, Banu A’id: Lineages, Biographies and Ancestors, Al-Manar, Palestinian Ministry of Culture, 2014, p. 130 A young female gazelle; a person who visits the sick to heal them; a traveler with the purpose of serving society.(ar) جبران ، مسعود, المعجم الرائد, vol. حرف العين, ، بيروت, دار العلم للملايين, 1992
Historical settlement